-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Big-ticket investment projects worth Rs 1.1 lakh crore, stuck for years for want of myriad government clearances, have finally got the green signal to start operations. The Centre has unravelled last-mile hurdles holding up 28 such projects at a time Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has identified the government's primary task as reinvigorating confidence in the Indian economy, with domestic players having virtually abandoned fresh investments. The clearances would...

-PTI The Government will kick-start a number of new infrastructure projects including 8 new airports and two new sea-ports in the coming months to boost sluggish economic growth, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday. With economic growth slowing to a decade low of 5 per cent, the Congress-led UPA government has further opened the economy to foreign direct investment and now wants to use investments for returning to high growth...

-FoodFirst.org NEW YORK CITY-Five innovative grassroots groups from across the globe working for democratic access to land, seeds, water and food have been honored with the 2013 Food Sovereignty Prize, the US Food Sovereignty Alliance announced today. Winners of the fifth annual Food Sovereignty Prize were chosen from among more than 40 inspiring projects creating on-the-ground solutions to hunger and poverty, said the alliance, a network of food justice, anti-hunger, labor, environmental,...

-The Economics Times NEW DELHI: The government plans to give a fresh impetus to public-private partnership by overhauling the framework for such projects on the basis of a study being undertaken by the Planning Commission, which is likely to submit its recommendations within a month. The move comes after a few big PPP projects in infrastructure sector fell apart while those in the power sector have been struggling to sail through. "We...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: With CAG reports on 2G and Coalgate scams hounding the UPA-2 regime, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Monday said the federal auditor was not equipped to carry out performance evaluation. While the UPA had targeted CAG for "exceeding its jurisdiction" by venturing into policy domain, Ahluwalia took the fight to another level by arguing that the performance audit carried out by the auditor...